Following Thursday night’s opening performance of Little Shop of Horrors at the Wyvern Theatre, the applause rightly belonged to the huge cast of young performers who had just brought the cult musical to life.
But what audiences see on stage is only part of the story.
This year’s Summer Youth Project has brought together 196 young people aged from nine to 21 on stage, while another 19 young people have been working behind the scenes in technical theatre, wardrobe, make-up, set building, props, sound and lighting.
For producer Oli Webb, that combination is what makes the project so special.
“The backstage team – 19 young technicians, wardrobe and make-up artists, set and prop builders, sound designers and lighting designers – all started three weeks ago from scratch,” he explained.
“They were given designs by our amazing Wyvern technical team, who showed them how to build and rig everything, and they did it all.”
It is easy, sitting in the audience, to forget quite how much goes into creating a production of this scale. Sets need to be constructed, props created, costumes prepared, microphones managed, lighting programmed and countless cues hit at exactly the right moment.
For many of the young people involved, Summer Youth Project is their first opportunity to discover that side of theatre.
While the backstage team were already hard at work, the enormous on-stage company arrived a week later.
“Two weeks ago our on-stage team started, learning the rules of theatre, what different phrases mean and the layout of the building,” said Oli.
From there came the considerable task of turning almost 200 young performers into one company and preparing Little Shop of Horrors for a paying audience in just a fortnight.
This year, however, learning the show also meant understanding some of the culture behind it.
During rehearsals, the company welcomed Zoe Smith, Chair of the Swindon Jewish Community, who spoke about Judaism, Jewish culture and its history.
The conversation was particularly relevant to one of the musical’s numbers, Mushnik and Son, in which flower shop owner Mr Mushnik invites the naïve Seymour to become his adopted son.
“There’s an amazing song called Mushnik and Son, where the flower shop owner invites the naïve botanist Seymour to be his son, to join his enormous family in a joyful Klezmer number,” Oli explained.
“We wanted to ensure that the participants who may not understand the importance of the music could really immerse themselves in the culture.”
That attention to the detail behind the production is perhaps one of the reasons Summer Youth Project has endured for more than three decades.
First staged in 1994, the project has become an established part of Swindon’s arts calendar, introducing generations of youngsters to theatre both on stage and behind the curtain.
For Oli, one of its greatest strengths is the extraordinary range of young people it brings together.
“We have 196 on-stage participants from ages nine all the way to 21,” he said.
“That’s primary school to university leavers. Where else can this group be together, as equals, working on a project?”
It is a question that gets to the heart of what Summer Youth Project is about.
For a few weeks, age and background become far less important than the shared objective of putting on the best possible show. A nine-year-old taking their first steps onto the Wyvern stage becomes part of the same company as someone preparing to leave university and take their next steps into adult life.
“The project has been running since 1994 and has become a staple of the Swindon arts scene, and it is my absolute pleasure to work with the team we do,” Oli added.
“Every member of the creative team ensures everyone is welcome, safe and shines.”
Behind the project is the Trafalgar Entertainment Trust, a charity working to enable people to access and experience the arts regardless of their background.
“The project is run by the Trafalgar Entertainment Trust, a charity that enables people, no matter their background, to access the arts in its myriad forms,” said Oli.
“The Wyvern Theatre and its team work tirelessly to produce a professional-level show, and the final production speaks for itself.”
After Thursday night’s opening performance, it was difficult to argue with him.
What the audience sees is a finished musical, complete with a huge cast, live performances, costumes, scenery, lighting and, of course, one particularly hungry plant.
What it represents is something considerably bigger.
It is 215 young people across the stage and backstage teams learning together, creating together and discovering just how much can be achieved in the space of a few weeks.
For more than 30 years, Summer Youth Project has provided young people in Swindon with that opportunity.
And judging by the cast that has taken over the Wyvern Theatre this summer, the project remains every bit as important to Swindon’s cultural life today as it was when it began in 1994. Having been fortunate enough to watch SYP for the past ten years, one thing has become increasingly clear – somehow, they continue to raise the bar, and it just seems to get better and better every year.
